Damon > Damon's Quotes

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
― Voltaire

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
― Voltaire

“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.”
― Voltaire

“Common sense is not so common.”
― Voltaire, A Pocket Philosophical Dictionary

“Love truth, but pardon error.”
― Voltaire

“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”
― Voltaire

“Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Dare to think for yourself.”
― Voltaire

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
― Bernard of Clairvaux

“There was a game called "Work." and on of the most-often-repeated Soviet jokes described it perfectly: "We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.”
― Masha Gessen, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

“There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. While the first is the condition of a free society, the second means as De Tocqueville describes it, a new form of servitude.”
― Friedrich Hayek, Individualism and Economic Order

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.”
― Confucius

“Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”
― Milton Friedman

“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.”
― Milton Friedman

“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”
― Milton Friedman

“The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.”
― Milton Friedman

“Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government-- in pursuit of good intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.”
― Milton Friedman

“Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”
― Milton Friedman

“Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.”
― Milton Friedman

“Governments never learn. Only people learn.”
― Milton Friedman

“Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.”
― Milton Friedman

“Society doesn't have values. People have values.”
― Milton Friedman

“Seek not greater wealth, but simpler pleasure; not higher fortune, but deeper felicity.”
― Mahatma Ghandi

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
― Mahatma Ghandi

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.”
― Abraham Lincoln